Writing critical articles, reviews, reviews about a particular work of art, whether it is literature, painting, music or a movie, obeys the same rules and meets general requirements. We formulate them on the example of how to write a review of the film.
Basic Rules
1. Preliminary preparation
- First of all, you need to know the subject that will be discussed in the review. Since this is a movie, it must be watched at least twice.
- After the first viewing, you can briefly, in points, note the impression made by the film on you. As a rule, the freshest impression helps set the tone for the article. And viewing will reorder your thoughts and moods for the second time, help to understand the plot moves, understand the semantic subtleties of the plot.
- Further, to write a review, you should look at the material about the director, actors involved in the main and secondary casts. In the material of your article, it is worth mentioning whether the authors of the picture are known, what are their achievements in cinema, what awards have already been noted. Speaking of actors, it is necessary to say about their role, already known roles, about how much the role in this film corresponds to the main directions of their work. It would be nice to emphasize their acting regalia.
- Before you write a review, it’s worth looking at existing reviews about the film, if it’s not about the premiere. This will make it possible to enter the topic and not repeat what has already been said. In addition, the gleaned information can prompt you to interesting thoughts, become the starting point of your work.
- Readers will probably be interested to know about the authors of the music for the movie, especially if it has catchy soundtracks. Therefore, it is worth digging through the archives and getting the necessary information.
2. The main part
So, the picture is scanned, the necessary notes are made, all the additional material is at hand. Now, before writing a review, you should thoroughly think over its composition. In evaluating the film, it’s difficult to remain impartial, because art exists to influence the world of our emotions, it is addressed primarily to the spiritual side of our personality. But, nevertheless, objectivity must be present in the review. And both positive and negative reviews should be explained, justified and proved in accordance with the laws of film science.
When compiling a review, be sure to operate with a metalanguage, use art criticism terms and professional film lexicon. Just make sure that the text of the article is not overloaded by them, especially if the review is intended for the general reader. Having outlined how to write a review from this point of view, it is worth considering the genre originality of the film. You may have to turn to dictionaries to clarify some definitions and distinguishing features, especially of new genres.
The objective of the review is to show the advantages and disadvantages of the film, help the viewer, including the inexperienced, to understand its ideological and thematic subtleties, to reveal the nuances of the actors' play. The unequivocal “good” and “bad” will not work here. In addition, you need to pay attention to the symbolism of images and objects, if any, in the picture, the role of individual parts, episodes, frames.
Usually in a feature film, if the article is devoted to such a product of the film industry, landscape plays an important role in meaning. Sometimes you should write about it on purpose, devoting a separate paragraph. The same can be said about the interior, especially if the picture is on a historical theme. In this case, it’s nice to give a few words to the costumes of the heroes.
Conclusion
When the preparation for the work is completed, and you feel fully equipped, once again analyze all the material - how to write a review, how to design, so that there are no overlays. And then start the creative process!